"Barnaby by Crockett Johnson is a gentle, intelligent, funny, and ridiculous masterpiece"

-- Jeff Smith

"Crockett Johnson is best known today for his children's books...but his paramount creation was the celebrated if obscure newspaper strip Barnaby.... This effort is the first to collect it in its entirety. Even Mr. O'Malley couldn't conjure up a more welcome endeavor."

-- Booklist

"the strip is hilarious, with a satirical bent (one of O’Malley’s preposterous exploits gets him elected to Congress in absentia) and erudite, literate humor, exemplified by O’Malley’s far-out-of-date cultural references (helpfully explained here in endnotes). The winningly absurd supporting cast includes Atlas the pygmy giant, talking dog Gorgon, and Gus the timid ghost."

Read my biographical essay on Crockett Johnson (pdf), which appeared in the now defunct Comic Art. In addition to being the most thorough biography of Johnson (prior to the publication of my full-length biography, listed below), the essay is fully illustrated (thanks to generous individuals and special collections).

Philip Nel, Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books. Oxford University Press, 2017. 288 pages, 46 illustrations.

Honorable Mention for the 2018 PROSE Award in Literature from the Association of American Publishers.

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2018.

"In this powerful, deeply-researched, accessible study, Nel exposes the racial power of children's literature. A rousing call to consciousness and action, Was the Cat in the Hat Black? shows how children's literature [can] help build an anti-racist future. This book should be required reading for everyone—scholars, librarians, teachers, authors, readers, and more-who cares about children's literature."

"Philip Nel's provocative book investigates the role of whiteness in creating conventions of children's literature and speaks directly to the field's profound omissions, defamations, and erasures. Not only does Nel excavate the hidden lineages and vexed investments of major authors like Theodor Geisel, but his argument demonstrates why this kind of interrogative work is fundamentally ethical and necessary to the field. A thoughtful, courageous book, Was the Cat in the Hat Black? links scholarship to activism, inspiring us to engage more fully race theory in our pedagogy, writing, and social practice."

"A state-of-the-art study of race and racism in U.S. children's literature and an impassioned plea to debate its complexity, Was the Cat in the Hat Black? compellingly discerns the racial figurations hiding in plain sight. With theoretical acuity and prodigious learning, Nel shows that the answer to his title demands the cunning and high spirits of the children's books themselves. Thing One and Thing Two, take note."

"In this carefully constructed analysis, Nel brilliantly strips away the mask of innocence from Seuss's Cat in the Hat, layer by layer, to reveal the Cat's complex and sordid racial history. Placing this famous feline alongside other time-honored classic characters from American children's literature, Nel removes 'Whiteness's invisibility cloak.' He explodes the excuses that well-meaning scholars have made for these texts for decades, then makes a convincing argument for why young readers need to be exposed to unbowdlerized racist texts from historical and contemporary American literature. A straight, White male scholar, Nel advises: 'Don't just be an ally. Be an accomplice.' As an African American female scholar, I am glad to have Nel alongside us on these front lines."

"In each chapter, the author demonstrates why he is considered a master in his field, as he faultlessly blends history and anecdote with insightful criticism.... A fascinating and necessary critical work."

"Like a detective working a literary crime scene, Nel patiently builds his case by piecing together clues and evidence in well-known stories from Dr. Seuss, and in the current young adult fiction renaissance. Nel uses such terms as invisible, covert, hidden, absence and erasure more than 70 times, by my count, to describe systemic racism's clandestine modus operandi."

—John Murawski, News and Observer

"If you are a parent or you work with young people in any capacity, this is perhaps the most important book you could read this year. In clear, methodical prose, Nel unmasks and makes explicit the overwhelming whiteness of beloved classics, suggests how we can balance our affection for our favorites while addressing their problematic elements, and lays the groundwork for how a more diverse world of children's literature could be achieved. This is a brilliant and vital read."

"The strength of Nel's book is accessibility. Nel's analysis is thought provoking and deep, and his tone and style open the discussion to a wide audience. Nel concludes with a 'manifesto' that lists actions all readers can easily accomplish, and this call to action adds to the book's impact. Though the need for diversity in children's books has been the subject of numerous articles and blogs, Nel's book is the first detailed scholarly examination of this subject. Joining Suriyan Panlay's Racism in Contemporary African American Children's and Young Adult Literature (2016), which examines internalized racism in fiction by African American authors, Nel's book is required reading. ... Summing Up: Essential. Lower division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers."

—P.J. Kurtz, Choice

"this volume adds nuance and new layers to the current conversation on the need for diversity in children's books. His conclusion, 'A Manifesto for Anti-Racist Literature,' provides actionable steps that producers and consumers of children's literature—authors, scholars, parents, librarians, educators, and publishing professionals—can take to dismantle the white supremacy inherent in the industry.... A necessary purchase for academic and professional reading collections."

"Barnaby by Crockett Johnson is a gentle, intelligent, funny, and ridiculous masterpiece"

-- Jeff Smith

"Crockett Johnson is best known today for his children's books...but his paramount creation was the celebrated if obscure newspaper strip Barnaby.... This effort is the first to collect it in its entirety. Even Mr. O'Malley couldn't conjure up a more welcome endeavor."

-- Booklist

"the strip is hilarious, with a satirical bent (one of O’Malley’s preposterous exploits gets him elected to Congress in absentia) and erudite, literate humor, exemplified by O’Malley’s far-out-of-date cultural references (helpfully explained here in endnotes). The winningly absurd supporting cast includes Atlas the pygmy giant, talking dog Gorgon, and Gus the timid ghost."

Read my biographical essay on Crockett Johnson (pdf), which appeared in the now defunct Comic Art. In addition to being the most thorough biography of Johnson (prior to the publication of my full-length biography, listed below), the essay is fully illustrated (thanks to generous individuals and special collections).

"Barnaby’s typeset balloons fuse Crockett Johnson’s precisely composed text and drawings into extensions of each other — Comics as Graphic Design! To replace hand-lettering with Futura, a font that strips away the non-essential to insist on clarity, might seem like an odd choice for a strip that radiates human warmth and whimsy — but it allows the artist’s brilliantly-written characters to keep their feet planted in the all-too-real world of 1940s America while flying off on pink wings into one of the greatest fantasy strips ever made."

-- Art Spiegelman

"Barnaby ... belongs to a tradition of strips, from Pogo toBloom County, that mix kid-friendly fantasy with adult satire.... [Crockett Johnson] gave us one of the 20th century's most entertaining comic-strip characters, J.J. O'Malley. He might not be the fairy godmother a boy wants, but he's the egotistical lowlife of a fairy godfather we all deserve."

"That's the unalloyed brilliance of Johnson's strip: in the end there's nothing extraordinary in this world: only little flying men, ghosts and imps of all sorts, talking dogs, and the like, and a well-balanced little boy who doesn't consider that anyone should think any of this to be unexpected. .... These are gorgeous and charming books, fine harbingers of future volumes in the series, and a necessary reminder of the gentle pleasures of, as Ware observes, the last great uncollected comic strip."

"Five-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his fairy godfather, Mr. O’Malley, had amazing journeys through the world (and dark underbelly) of politics, high finance and current events. They crossed the line between reality and imagination as often as we crossed the street, leaving readers spellbound and craving more."

Read my biographical essay on Crockett Johnson (pdf), which appeared in the now defunct Comic Art. In addition to being the most thorough biography of Johnson (prior to the publication of my full-length biography, listed below), the essay is fully illustrated (thanks to generous individuals and special collections).

"I think, and I am trying to talk calmy, that Barnaby and his friends and oppressors are the most important additions to American arts and letters in lord knows how many years. I know that they are the most important additions to my heart. . . . I think Mr. Johnson must love people. I know darned well I must love Mr. Johnson"

-- Dorothy Parker

"I never thought I'd see this day, but the book you hold is, well... the last great comic strip. Yes, there are dozens of other strips worth rereading, but none are this Great; this is great like Beethoven, or Steinbeck, or Picasso. This is so great it lives in its own timeless bubble of oddness and truth."

-- Chris Ware

"There's no way Jack Kerouac, along with every other self-consciously cool person in New York, wasn't reading this. O'Malley turns into Neal Cassady, the guy who's note quite human, who never shuts up, who drives you crazy, and who can make anything happen, just like that. There will be a Volume Two; in the meantime, there's also Nel's lively, inspiring Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature"

-- Greil Marcus, The Believer, Nov.-Dec 2013

"Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby [is] one of the finest and most thought-provoking comic strips ever created.... As expected, this book meets Fantagraphics’s usual high standards for bringing the pen-and-ink classic comics back to life. A bright yellow cover with a World War II-inspired design, combined with informative essays and a glossary of the historic events covered in the strips, makes this book a real treasure for readers of all ages. ... [T]here has always been a subtle charm about Barnaby, Mr. O’Malley, and supporting characters such as Gus the Ghost and Gorgon the dog, that completely transcends political lines. Liberals may love Barnaby, but there is no reason why conservatives and libertarians can’t admire the beauty, simplicity, wittiness and intelligence of this groundbreaking strip, too."

"Though Harold is considered the classic, Barnaby received lots of critical acclaim in its day. One look at it and you’ll see why.... Though the stories revolve around five year old Barnaby and his fairy godfather (along with a ghost, lion, and more), the seemingly whimsical strip dealt with important issues in a way that didn’t talk down to children. Thus it’s one of those great strips that provided entertainment for young readers and their parents."

Read my biographical essay on Crockett Johnson (pdf), which appeared in the now defunct Comic Art. In addition to being the most thorough biography of Johnson (prior to the publication of my full-length biography, listed below), the essay is fully illustrated (thanks to generous individuals and special collections).

"Krauss and Johnson have influenced as many contemporary children's book creators as Maurice Sendak or Chris Van Allsburg, yet biographical material on either or both was as rare as a giant carrot. Now author Phil Nel has remedied this with his insightful, thorough and thoroughly enjoyable book."

"Mr. Nel's engrossing, beautifully-researched dual-biography of these two mid-century masters and their enviable symbiosis will restore the cynic's faith in love and marriage and elicit gasps of shock from devotees of the genre at the sheer decency of their lives."

"a perceptive account of the couple's domestic, artistic, and political lives. While foregrounding the creation of such classics as Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon and Krauss's (and Sendak's) A Hole Is to Dig, Nel places these within the brimming context of two artistic lives that included studio painting (for Johnson) and poetry and plays (for Krauss). His accessible analysis of their work and its importance is partnered by an engaging portrait of their lives; readers will understand why the young Sendak found their company so inviting and inspirational."

-- Roger Sutton, The Horn Book, Sept.-Oct. 2012, p. 129

"wonderful new dual biography.... This book is a great read.... Highly recommended!"

"Krauss and Johnson loomed larger in the last century than they do now, but Mr. Nel argues that it would be a mistake to miss the durability of their legacy. The petite and turbulent Krauss, who wrote more than 40 works for young readers, 'helped pave the way for books that respect children's tough, pragmatic thinking and unorthodox use of language,' he says. Of the wry and laconic Johnson, whose work is often cited by artistic sorts as a source of inspiration, the author declares: 'He showed us that a crayon can create a world.'"

"Philip Nel’s new book wins the award, hands down, for best title of the year.... But more than that it gives us a narrative that hisses and crackles with energy, even with two subjects whose lives lacked the kind of intrigue and mystery that ordinarily makes for exciting biographical research and writing."

"Philip Nel’s scrupulously researched and beautifully written literary biography, Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature succeeds in rendering its two subjects in the detailed and unflinching manner that Forster demands of the novelist. … To cite Forster once again, Nel’s biography offers us not only round characters, but a pair of colorful and mutually devoted intellectuals whom we might wish to know just as well as our 'fellow creatures' – including our own colleagues."

"Nel's gorgeous and rallying Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature. I love those two so much I wish I still used Trapper Keepers so I could glue their faces onto one. They wrote all kinds of stories, together and separately, for both adults and children, all their lives, and as someone who wants this too I learn from how Nel maps their homes, remembers their arguments, and talks about how they talked about money and the government."

Read my biographical essay on Crockett Johnson (pdf), which appeared in the now defunct Comic Art. In addition to being the most thorough biography of Johnson (prior to the publication of this book), the essay is fully illustrated (thanks to generous individuals and special collections).

"Keywords for Children’s Literature demonstrates how sophisticated the critical approaches to the burgeoning field of children’s literature have become. Not only do the essays on keywords, written by some of the most capable professors in the field, elaborate important concepts in the history of children’s literature, but they cover significant cultural debates and discussions. This superb volume of scholarship demonstrates—definitively—that adult literature cannot be understood without grasping its roots in children’s literature."

-- Jack Zipes

"By distilling the complex uses of its core terms, the contributors to Keywords for Children's Literature have produced an indispensable handbook for scholars in this dynamic field."

-- Donald E. Pease

"an indispensable title in any children's literature scholar's library.... This book is a monumental achievement."

"As Julia L. Mickenberg and Philip Nel document in Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature (New York University, $32.95), Marxist principles have been dripping steadily into the minds of American youth for more than a century. This isn’t altogether surprising. After all, most parents want their children to be far left in their early years -- to share toys, to eschew the torture of siblings, to leave a clean environment behind them, to refrain from causing the extinction of the dog, to rise above coveting and hoarding, and to view the blandishments of corporate America through a lens of harsh skepticism. But fewer parents wish for their children to carry all these virtues into adulthood. It is one thing to convince your child that no individual owns the sandbox [...]. It is another to hope that when he grows up he will donate the family home to a workers' collective. [...] And in the next few years, as America backs cautiously away from its laissez-faire disasters and reluctantly into an unfamiliar, communal style of politics, some of us may find ourselves wishing we had been scared with such rhymes in kindergarten instead of having to live through them as adults."

-- Caleb Crain, "Children of the Left, Unite!", New York Times Book Review, 11 Jan. 2009, p. 23.

"By introducing kids (and their parents) to a wide range of forgotten and overlooked texts addressing progressive themes, and by provoking a closer look at what the books we already own imply, Mickenberg and Nel have done parents and kids alike a truly important service."

"Tales for Little Rebels (NYU) anthologizes 75 years of radical children’s literature. It’s a rousing, relevant chronicle of teaching kids about social and environmental justice, civil rights, and their power to challenge the status quo."

"the book reveals a unique, vibrant, imaginative, and energetic left-wing tradition of writing for young people. It is an invaluable resource for progressive educators and hopefully will inspire teachers to write and even publish their own children's books dealing with sensitive political and social issues."

"Tales for Little Rebels is a remarkable book in many ways [...]. According to liberal and conservative critics alike, radical, socialist, and communist teachings, indeed any kind of pedagogy condemning capitalism as a social system and envisioning something more cooperative, can only be dreadful stuff. This collection gives the lie to that. The prose excerpts are fascinating; the illustrations are perfectly fabulous and, very often, really funny. [...] The editors, Philip Nel (our best scholar of Geisel) and Julia Mickenberg (authoritative expert on progressive children's books of the 1950s-70s) offer outstanding annotations and introductions; fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes adds a fascinating Foreword."

"Some weave the messages deftly into their stories and others subordinate the entertainment to a lesson so blunt you could pound yams with it, but the mixture is consistently fascinating. It helps that the tales, illustrated by the likes of Walter Crane, Boris Artzybasheff and Lynd Ward and prefaced by the editors' thorough and helpful introductions, boast authors as skilled as Carl Sandburg, Munro (Ferdinand the Bull) Leaf, Dr. Seuss, Eve Merriam and Langston Hughes."

"Some of the selections are funny, such as Jerome Lawrence Schwartz's story about an ostrich named Oscar, who gets his warm sand dune (good for head-poking) usurped by a loud-voiced fascist ostrich; others are alarming in their didactic shrillness"

"a collection, with commentary, that blends old left, new left, hard left, soft left, and -isms from communism and socialism to feminism, environmentalism, and antiracism. The mosaic is the message. There was 'never a unified voice of the Left,' they write, 'just as there was never a unified vision of the child.'"

C-SPAN2's Book TV: Julia Mickenberg, Philip Nel, and Charlotte Pomerantz (author of The Day They Parachuted Cats on Borneo) talk about and read from Tales for Little Rebels at Bluestockings Bookstore, New York, 20 Dec. 2008. First aired 31 Jan. and 1 Feb. 2009.

Philip Nel, The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats. Random House, 2007.

"a super-dooper-doozidy-floozer of a doozy. [...] The Cat in the Hat [...] changed kid’s books forever and now Mr. Nel has edited The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats. For Seuss fanatics like myself it’s as sweet as pink cake (with little cross-hatch lines on the sides)."

"In The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats, Philip Nel gives us a better grip on just why Dr. Seuss has so thoroughly captured the imaginations of several generations of readersand the imaginations of their parents. [...] Nel’s line-by-line annotations illuminate precisely how Seuss created his masterwork [...]. Showing us how Seuss workedshowing him assemble the cat line by line in ink and printis the coolest gift this Annotated Cat could give us."

"Nel proves that it is fun to take Seuss's work seriously. [...] The well-documented text includes original manuscripts, early sketches, and illustrations with detailed analysis and descriptions. This text is an excellent addition to any school or public library and is essential reading for all who work with youth, literacy, and literature."

Philip Nel, The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small
Incisive Shocks. Jackson and London: University
Press of Mississippi, 2002. 249 pages, 41 illustrations.

"Nel is [...] equally at home in popular and university circles. [...] Happily, Nel exhibits these combined merits in user-friendly prose. The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity is a provocative and appealing book."

-- Arthur Saltzman, symploké

"a very good account of the avant-garde's shaping influence in American life and letters, one that raises many valuable questions."

-- Kenneth Kidd, Children's Literature

"By stressing the stylistic continuities between modernism and postmodernism, Nel [...] not only undermines any reified notions of periodicity but reminds us that modernism, in its specifically avant-garde formulations, is still very much with us. That the homogeneity of our postmodern simulacrum is challenged by The Cat in the Hat and Two Bad Ants as well as Snow White or Underworld is good news indeed."

-- Norman Finkelstein, American Literature

"Philip Nel's writing is a pleasure: lively clear, stylish, and free of unnecessary jargon. [...] The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small Incisive Shocks is a joy to read, raising, in true postmodernist fashion, as many questions as it answers."

Philip Nel, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's
Guide. New York and London: Continuum
Publishing, 2001. 96 pages. Also available in Japanese translation by Ihei Taniguchi, published by Jiritsu-shobo Inc., 2002.

"the single best piece of literary criticism on the Potter series [...] Philip Nel is the best thing to happen so far to Harry Potter in the American classroom."

"The book, which was dear to Johnson's heart, was rejected by numerous publishers in the early 1960s. [...] A foreword by Maurice Sendak and an afterword by Philip Nel offer fascinating glimpses both of Johnson and his attempts to get the book published. [...] Like the imaginative play of children, the book is mysterious and unexpected but always true to its own inner logic. [...] The book itself is beautifully designed and produced, making it a pleasure to handle as well as read. I think Crockett Johnson would approve."

-- Terri Schmitz, Horn Book

"Issued [...] in 1965 as Castles in the Sand, with [...] illustrations by Betty Fraser, this philosophical tale appears here in its original form, beneath Johnson's own rough, expressive sketches -- sandwiched between an eloquent appreciation of both author and art by Maurice Sendak, and a publishing history by renowned scholar Philip Nel. [...] [A] handsomely packaged artifact for adult readers of children's literature."

-- Kirkus Reviews

"The ingenious book design plays up the feel of an artist's sketchbook, and the spare pencil sketches (with even the artist's erasures in evidence) [...] give readers the feeling of peering over the artist's shoulder. The drawings introduce young Ann and Ben, outlined in the expressive line that Harold fans will recognize immediately. The children have only to write a word in the sand and the item appears before them, making an intriguing play on the notion of spelling and spells. [...] Like all great stories, this one stretches well beyond the pages. All ages."

-- Publishers Weekly

"Bracketed by two insightful, informative gems for Johnson fans, a two-page 'appreciation' by Maurice Sendak and a four-page afterword on the book's history by Philip Nel, this handsome book is clearly aimed at adults as much as children. But whoever the audience, there is magic to be found in the words and sketches of Crockett Johnson."